Blogs from Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 82

Before I go headlong into today's blog, I would like to let you all know that Jish is alive and well! He is being cared for by the nice people at the Kyoto bus company and tomorrow we get to pick him up. How happy are we? We honestly didn't expect to see him ever again but our wonderful guesthouse owner, Eimi (pronounced Amy), phoned up for us this morning and gave us the good news when we got back. I guess it's testament to the honesty of Japenese folk. When I told our fellow guests about it last night in the common room, one of them said how he had left his digital camera on the bus a couple of days ago but when he went to the bus company he was surprised to find ... read more

This morning Robert decided to try his hand at making Japanese french toast. It was very delicious, the bread here is sooo soft and sliced very thick. We then headed out for Hiroshima via the shinkansen (bullet train) but our first train out from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka was delayed almost 40 minutes. We finally arrived in Hiroshima in the late afternoon. We stayed in Hotel Flex, which was an actual hotel with private bathrooms and all that, so that was a nice change of pace. We ventured out to Okonomi-mura, which is 3 stories of about 30 mini-restaurants, all cooking their own style of okonomiyaki (a japanese style pancake filled with meat and vegetables). On the second floor we came across a very convincing old lady who ushered us in and practically shoved the menus in ... read more

On Friday, I finally found out what I was supposed to do with Bessho-sensei. He sent me an email, and though I got the idea correct (capture a critter for unknown neuroscience purposes), I got the location incorrect. I met Bessho-sensei at his lab, met the other 6 people I'll be working with this summer (all students, unsure of approximately how old), grabbed some snacks, and hopped in a car. We began our three hour roadtrip then, which was an experience in itself. Speaking Japanese is still exhausting for me, and though we spoke mixed English-Japanese, it was still mostly Japanese and extremely tiring. We soon arrived at the *beach* to capture our prey - the sea snail Aplysia. Turns out these sea snails only have around 20,000 nerves in their bodies and they are all ... read more

Today was our first full day in Kyoto. We started out the day walking to a few temples nearby. It was pretty neat, but I think I would have to learn how to read Kanji before I could fully appreciate them. From there we went downtown, where the streets were lined with all sort of boutiques, like Louis Vuitton and Armani, it kind of reminded me of South Coast Plaza. We stopped at a toy store where Robert was able to get his hands on a miniature set of his favorite Naruto characters. At this point we realized that Robert’s wallet was missing and we rushed back to the hostel. Thankfully, we found it had fallen on the floor inside our room! Oh boy, would we have be screwed if it wasn’t. Anyways, then we ... read more

Despite the disclaimer in my "about me" section, one of the true purposes of this weblog is to help me not forget the lessons I've learned in my travels. Years later, I can blow the digital dust off my archived copies of this post and remember what it was like in Japan. I came here seeking something internal, but I rely on the external circumstances to bring forth the revelations that shape who I am. That being said, this post is going to be a little ridiculous for readers other than me (namely, everyone else in the world who can read this). So, sorry. You're going to be privy to a rather unprecedented level of candidacy from me, and there are some people I normally wouldn't communicate this to. Mom, please don't tell me if you ... read more